Chapter 39: Eve Neido (5)
I felt like I was about to lose my mind at the bizarre sight that surpassed all my expectations. What was this? How could something like this even exist in the world? It was a filthy, gruesome, and unsettling scene, as if a B-grade slasher movie set had been brought to life.
"Ghh... ngh... nnggh..."
I couldn't understand what the Hero had seen to say that Eve cherished this mermaid. What kind of relationship did she even have with this mermaid? In the original game, Eve was an event-based companion who would join you after a good beating, and besides a sex scene, she didn't have any special cutscenes. Just like with the Forbidden Elixir before, the world followed the game setting meticulously, yet there were strange differences.
The faint sound of clashing swords came from above. I couldn't delay any longer. I smashed the water tank with my mace. Water poured out from the shattered tank. The immense water pressure swept coolly through the room and hallway, and I heard the screams of the crew members behind me. Barely holding on by grabbing the nearby bars, I looked down at the mermaid floundering on the floor.
She was still convulsing, letting out strangled moans. Was Eve abusing this woman as a form of love? The original Eve was a crazy bitch, so maybe her "love" for this mermaid was a kind of obsession. She was a sexual deviant, so it wouldn't be out of character for her to rape a mermaid too.
I pulled the dildo out from between the mermaid's crotch. It was a little smaller in size compared to Lusius's thing, but it still boasted a considerable size. Once pulled out, it dangled limply and fell to the floor. Disgusted, I threw the dildo away and untied the mermaid's gag.
"Hehe... heh-hehe..."
I'd expected it from her unfocused eyes, but she didn't seem to be in her right mind. Her hands were tied anyway, so I figured I could just take her as a hostage and threaten Eve. As I reached out to lift the mermaid, she deftly avoided my hand and spoke.
"Have you ever started something without thinking, only for it to become a habit?"
"What?" "T-The mermaid is moving!"
The crew members shouted from behind. The mermaid was free? But she was still tied up. Even though her hands were clearly bound, the crew members started screaming and running away. The crew members who had come down below deck to escape the Hero started scrambling back up to the deck.
The mermaid put a little strength into it, and the ropes binding her snapped easily with a snap! sound. Having freed her arms, the mermaid began to move, rolling her shoulders a few times. She took a deep breath of the room's air and looked at me. Her unfocused blue eyes were fixed on me. Since I said nothing, she spoke to me again.
"It's like getting addicted to something you did out of habit, and now you just keep repeating it. Has that ever happened to you?"
Dangerous. I intuitively realized this mermaid was dangerous. The mermaid with red hair and blue eyes was scanning the room with her unfocused gaze. In my mind, I opened the mermaid's status window.
Name: Cellu
Race: Mermaid
Level: 34
Stats
Current traits are in effect.
Strength: 110
Agility: 120
Intelligence: 48
Luck: 78
Traits
Mermaid's Blessing
All Stats Double underwater or on water.
Fish School Detection
Can Converse with Fish.
I swung my mace first. Thanks to that broken-as-fuck trait, Mermaid's Blessing or whatever, her stats were no joke. It would be a pain in the ass if she went wild here, so it was better to just smash her skull and go up. If I kept my distance and threatened Eve, she wouldn't be able to tell if the mermaid was knocked out or dead anyway.
But the mermaid ducked and dodged my mace much faster than I expected, then crawled across the floor to the corner of the room. Despite having no legs, the mermaid moved like a cat. She pressed herself against the bars and spoke to me.
"This place, Pirate Island, used to be where mermaids lived. That's why people originally called it Mermaid Island. But then, when rumors spread that mermaids lived here, hunters started flocking over. Mermaid's blood is worth a lot of money, you see. They say it has an aphrodisiac effect. Heh..."
The mermaid laughed like she was out of her mind, tilting her head from side to side. This was a crazy bitch. I thought she was just some bitch being abused by Eve since she was tied up, but it seemed they were just enjoying a healthy relationship based on mutual consent.
"So, do you know how many mermaids died? I don't know either, I stopped counting after 100. Besides special ones like me, all mermaids are weak."
True, if all mermaids were this strong, they would've already taken over the seas. In the original game, mermaids were complete pushover monsters. Even with the Mermaid's Blessing, their base stats were no different from a normal human's. Excluding strange named individuals like this one.
"Humans are so strange. They want to eat mermaids and draw their blood, but they also feel sexual desire for us. Hey, have you ever seen a half-human, half-mermaid?"
I knew about half-human, half-mermaids. Eve, who was fighting a bloody battle with our Hero on the deck right now, was one. It wasn't mentioned in the main story, but I remembered it was briefly written in her character settings. That's why if you saw her sex scene, she had scales on her legs.
"Eve swam to Mermaid Island all by herself. She said she hated humans. I can't tell you how happy I am that my Eve grew up to be so strong. I can't count the years we suffered their insults and oppression. I can't forgive those bastards who called our Mermaid Island a mermaid colony and would come by whenever they were bored to capture one of us."
I had no more time to waste, but she was hard to catch. Whenever I swung wildly, the mermaid would flexibly twist her body like a snake and dodge everything. Of course, she couldn't do anything to me either. The moment that bitch tried to bite me, I was confident I could turn her into mermaid jerky.
She kept out of my mace's reach, darting around the room. I kept my mace aimed at her, constantly turning my body so I wouldn't lose her.
"At first, we decided to only kill the humans who came to hunt. Because if we started killing people indiscriminately, there would be no end to it. Regardless of our hatred, that was the reality. So, we decided to do just a little bit of bad deeds, just until our mermaids could move their dwellings to another island. Heh..."
The mermaid shook her head, letting out a manic, unnerving laugh. That blank expression was really unsettling. It felt like a ghost from a horror movie was cosplaying as a mermaid. Her breasts were fully exposed, her figure was nice, and her face was pretty, but I couldn't feel any sexual desire at all.
"Crazy bitch."
"We decided to do just a little bit, just a little bit of bad deeds, but as we did it, it became so much fun. Both Eve and I got addicted to it before we knew it. It's so fun to castrate the mermaid hunters, and it's so fun to watch them die while writhing in pain. It's so fun to watch Eve bring women and rape them in front of me. To be honest, I don't think I can live with the other mermaids anymore. Life now is just too much fun."
The mermaid's eyes gleamed. Only then did I understand why this bitch had a dildo stuck inside her and was living like this in a place like this. This crazy mermaid had been masturbating while watching people tied up in the corner get castrated and die.
Considering that mermaid's preference, Eve had brought a water tank into the torture room and killed and raped people there. It was a setup that could only be described as a mother and daughter who were both completely insane.
It made me feel even worse to think that if things had gone slightly wrong, the Hero could have been taken too, ending up broken like those crazy women in the Trade City hall. I pointed my mace at the mermaid and said.
"You fucking bitch."
"Heh... Hey there."
The mermaid grinned as she looked at my mace. She probably thought she could win on the water. I doubted the hunters who went after mermaids were as strong as me or the Hero. It was clear the mermaid was thinking of me as just a priest who was a little stronger than expected.
"Have you ever been addicted to something that started without a thought?"
The mermaid's scales stiffened as her eyes widened. I gripped my mace tightly and prepared for a showdown with the mermaid.
** **
A rum barrel on the deck was sliced in one blow. Eve frowned as she dodged the blade that came flying at her. This woman was much stronger than she'd thought. She wasn't this strong when they first fought;
her skill seemed to be improving over time.
She had shown all her resourcefulness in the first fight, so she didn't fall for any petty tricks, and whether it was because of the priest's blessing, she couldn't be crushed one-sidedly with pure strength like before. Moreover, her opponent's skill was superior to her own.
On top of that, the priest who had disappeared downstairs was weighing heavily on her mind. Her mother would surely take care of him, but if by some chance she lost, things would get complicated. But she couldn't just ignore the AA in front of her.
Thanks to all this, Eve was in a difficult situation. The contest was dragging on without a clear winner. She didn't think she would lose. But it seemed it would be difficult to subdue AA without killing him as she had originally planned.
"You're pretty good."
Eve said. AA didn't reply. She didn't even show any sign of being concerned about the priest who had gone downstairs. Eve started spouting nonsense to try and shake her psychologically.
"My mom is downstairs. She was the leader of Mermaid Island. I don't know how strong that priest is, but if my mom gets him, he'll be torn to shreds."
AA still didn't answer. Her sword tip remained firm. Eve showed her irritation and spoke again.
"Can't you hear me? Your priest is going to die. My mom is going to fuck him up. Huh? Do you get what I'm saying?"
AA, who had been in a standoff, finally opened her mouth.
"You seem anxious."
"What? What the fuck did you just say?"
"You're feeling uneasy, aren't you?"
"Fuck. Me, uneasy? Do you really want to die? Huh? You fucking bitch!"
Boom!
A loud boom echoed from downstairs. At the sound, both AA and Eve turned their heads. The hatch to the deck opened quietly, and a red-haired mermaid poked her head out. Eve shouted in a bright voice.
"Mom!"
And then, that mermaid was thrown onto the deck, limp and drained of all strength. Lusius, who crawled out right after, spat on the floor and stepped on the mermaid with his foot. Seeing Eve's face harden, he spoke.
"Drop your weapon."